Stories & Projects

The Feeling of Breath

In modern medicine, we are able to measure almost anything
relating to our bodies. Analyzing and responding to that data is
often a more complex procedure. In an effort to bridge that gap,
three students at UID developed AERO° - a smart interface
aimed at evolving anaesthesia and intensive care by making
breathing visible in real time.

The project, which recently won the Student Design Challenge at
the 2018 TEI conference in Stockholm, targets a sensitive medical
procedure where the connection between patient and nurse is vital.
When a patient is anaesthetised, the central nervous system is
suppressed, leaving the patient in a highly vulnerable state. To
keep the patient safe the simultaneous monitoring of a multitude of
physical parameters through a ventilator machine is required. A
steady stream of complicated data feedback informs the medical
staff about the status of the patient. The ability to break down
all this information and act upon it accordingly takes time, and
time is always of the essence in anaesthetics. Seconds can save
lives.

The group behind the project is Martina Eriksson, Carolyn Wegner
and Shibashankar Sahoo, first year students at the Masters
Programme in Interaction Design. They wanted to create a user
friendly interface where the nurse can better understand, and
quicker respond to, the constant flow of data. The result is AERO°,
an apparatus that offers a responsive physical representation of
the collected data, making it easier for the nurse to interpret and
visualize the status of the patient at any given moment. The goal?
To help medical staff make better decisions, faster. Martina
Eriksson explains.

"The 'Aero° smart tangible user interface' is the result of ten
weeks of extensive research, prototyping and iteration. The
interface addresses the limitations of current user interfaces by
making the invisible phenomena of breathing visible. It envisions
the next generation of interfaces that supports humanization of
data."

Early sketch
representing the tactile interface
of AERO°

Through the physical representation of breathing patterns,
revealing the lung's inner movement, a lot of hidden information
can be exposed in an instant. For example, the change in the muscle
relaxation inside the lung during anesthesia is something that can
be felt faster through a tactile interface. It is envisioned that
with the help of AERO° the tangible data, felt by the nurse, can be
monitored in real time and directly manipulated when necessary.

The final prototype of AERO° presented
at the 2018 TEI conference in Stockholm

The project 'Aero: A Tangible Interface for A Critical
Healthcare Context' was carried out as part of the IxD1 course
'Project 1: Professional Product'